New thesis on educating primary care professionals in nutrition care in the patient´s home

Hello Erika Berggren, PhD student at the Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care. You are about to defend your thesis on 17 November, what is the main focus of your research?

"The main focus in this thesis was to evaluate an intervention about “Nutritional care for patients cared for at home” developed using a continuing interprofessional educational model adapted for primary health care (ConPrim®)."

Which are the most important results?

"Important results were that the professionals agreed that the ConPrim® model as applied in the intervention was suitable, the designs of the web-based program and case seminar were attractive, and they could use what they had learned in everyday clinical work. They found the time spent acceptable, with the exception of the practical exercise. In Study II, statistically significant effects were found in the inter-group analyses in 20 of the 32 statements: in all statements that assessed familiarity with important concepts and all statements about collaboration with other caregivers (except 2 of the 14 concerning level of knowledge).

In Study III, the effectiveness of the intervention was measured by profession. It was significant for both professions in areas 1 and 2, but in area 3, it was significant for GPs but not DNs. Nevertheless, the total intervention effect (p = 0.000 – p = 0.004) was significant in all three areas.

In Study IV, a theoretical model was constructed that describes how DNs and GPs negotiate the issue of responsibility for nutritional care via a uniprofessional dialogue (which does not lead to interprofessional learning) or an ongoing interprofessional dialogue (which under certain circumstances can lead to interprofessional learning)."

How can this new knowledge contribute to the improvement of people’s health?

“Nutritional care for patients cared for at home,” developed using the ConPrim® model, is a promising continuing interprofessional educational intervention. It may create the prerequisites for DNs and GPs to work in teams and to achieve a deeper level of understanding of patients’ needs for nutritional care."

What´s in the future for you? Will you keep on conducting research?

"I would like to keep on conducting research and although the intervention is promising, additional work is needed to examine the clinical practice outcomes of interventions developed using the ConPrim® model. Such outcomes could include measures of teamwork and patients’ experiences of health and well-being. The grounded theory model, “Negotiating responsibility for nutritional care for patients with home care,” also opens the door to interesting future research projects about facilitating case seminar dialogues that may lead to interprofessional learning and a deeper level of understanding."